Paying the Federal Debt

bill fancher fancher at pacbell.net
Wed Jun 30 14:46:18 PDT 1999


Doug Henwood wrote:


> Hey, I personally wrote about this months ago, commenting on
> Clinton's Feburary budget proposal. It's also nuts.

I'm hearing "the debt will always be with us". If I'd heard in 92 that we'd be running a surplus in 99, I wouldn't have believed it. I'm sure it's historically unusual in some way that this has happened. Given the current administration's performance to date, I'm willing to "suspend disbelief", at least momentarily.

I guess I'm asking "What if?" It would leave several trillion dollars looking for a home, presumably driving interest rates down and changing the face of the bond market in the process. After 2015, you have an extra $150 billion a year or so to play with. Again, I'm not seeing a big downside here. What have I missed? Why so negative?

-- bill

"Truth unfolds in time through a communal process." CQ



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